Monday, August 24, 2015

Day 4- Made it to Austin.

I woke up feeling nauseous and had a headache. The heat and no sleep must be getting to me. We decided Baron, the sag, needs to stop every 20 miles so we can get water and food in the desert heat. Because I wasn't feeling good, we had a really late start- 9 am. But Bob highly encouraged me to get on the bike and ride...hard to do a tandem with one person.
We left Fallon and entered the Salt Flats- lots of rock graffitti. Lots of drivers stop and arrange letters out of rocks. This part of the highway is called "the loneliest road". No towns at all for miles and miles. No shade, no water and no wildlife.

Bicycle graffiti- the kind we like

Lesson of the day- It's my job!

Jimmy Buffett has a song that stuck in my mind all day. One verse goes like this- "It's my job to be different than the rest and that's enough reason to go for me. It's my job to be better than the best and that's a tough break for me." I contemplated this for 103 miles of pain, thinking -" why am I doing this"?? The answer came. It's my job. It's my job to make a difference. It's my job to change status quo. It's my job to serve. Then I hung my head down and pedaled out the 12 hour day. Switchpoint is different, The model is working and we need to share. Many of the shelters think they are doing all they can- but what I see is that it takes a lot more work to do it right.

Huge shout out to Baron, Frankie and Mako. Great sag team- the dogs always great us with lots of wags.So we named them the Wag Sag!

By 8 pm, we hit Austin and I bonked big time. Made dinner and was asleep half way through my bowl.

On August 20th, Bob and Carol Hollowell set out on a 3,760-mile, cross-country bike ride in order to raise awareness and funds to help “Break the Cycle” of poverty in America. Where are they now? Click here to find out...

Switchpoint

Carol's ESPN Interview

Circles

Please check out: CirclesUSA.org Circles is a model program that is helping families break the cycle of poverty across the United States & Canada.